
Qass 



B)ok, 



£.11.3. 



Author...Hx .H(fx)5cnl^^.(r^ 



Imprint --H^C^okic^rvie ^ J(\Aj^^i ^ .^ Cj 



iO— 302W-1 GPO 



I. THE COST OF k NATIONAL CKIME. 
II. THE HELL OF WAR AND ITS PENALTIES. 



Kii;iirn Edition, Rbvised, Making Twknty 'I'iiousand, 
With Important Additions. 



TWO TREATISES 

SUGGESTED P.V THE APPOINTMENT OF A DAY OF 

NATIONAL THANKSGIVING 

15V Tin; 

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Fir.ST KIHTION. 

This paniiihlet is respectfully dedicated to the President of the United States, upon 
whom now rests a fearful responsibility. 

" Oh, yet a nobler task awaits thy hand 
(For what can war but endless war still breed?), 
Till truth and right from violence be freed. 
And public faith clear'd from the shameful brand 
Of public fraud! " 

Milton ■ 

EIGHTH EDITION AMENDED. 

This pamphlet is submitted to the President of the United States in the hope that the 

act denounced by him as one of " criminal aggression " now being committed under 

his authority will be averted by the Congress of the United States. 

BY 

EDWARD ATKINSON, 

OF 

BROOKLINE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A. 

[Funds are wanted to pay for j)rinting, stamping, and mailing future editions of 
this pamphlet at four dollars per hundred. Remit to Box 112, Boston, Mass., with or 
without mailing list. Pamphlets supplied without stamps at two dollars per hundred 
and express charges.] 




I. 



THE COST OF A NATIONAL CRIME. 

Analysis of the Revenue and Expenditure of the United States, 
Past and Fdtuke. 

" I speak not of forcible annexation, for that c*annot be tiiouglit of. Tliat by 
our code of morality would be criminal aggression. 

" William McKinley. 
" Executive Mansion, 
" April 11, 1898." 

Many problems are now pending in respect to the past and future of national 
taxation which may be stated in the following terms : 

First. What are the necessary or normal peace expenditures of this Govem- 
ment when economically administered ? 

Second. From what sources have these revenues been derived ? 

Third. Was the revenue derived under the act known as the Dingley Bill 
sufficient to meet the normal or peace expenditures in the last fiscal year ? 

Fourth. Was it likelj'to suffice in the present fiscal year except for the war 
with Spain ? 

Fifth. Will the Dingley Bill with the recent war revenue act combined yield 
a sufficient revenue to meet the probable future expenditm-es, assuming that the 
surplus cash in the Treasury at the beginning of the war and the proceeds of the 
war loan of $200,000,000 will have sufficed to cover the cost of the war, which 
may now be assumed? 

In order to develop the facts in the case the official figures of the last fiscal 
year will be given and analyzed per capita. 

These figures will then be compared per capita with the figures of th^ pre- 
vious twenty years, 1878 to 1897 inclusive. 

The per capita method of comparison, often very delusive, is in this case the 
only fit standard, because it gives an accurate standard of the economy or otherwise 
ijf each variation in our fiscal policy, and also because down to the enactment of tlic 
recent war revenue measures the taxes have been derived almost wholly from 
articles of common use and consumption, and have therefore been borne in much 
greater measure by consumers without distinction than with regard to their rela- 
tive earnings or incomes and their ability to pay. 



Wiiat are the necessary or normal exix^ndirurtjs of the Government economically 
administered? 

From 1878 to 1897 inclusive, a period of twenty jears, the standai'd or unit 
<)f value was gold, and all transactions were substantially at that standard, specie 
payment on a gold basis having been resumed Jan. 1, 1879. In the short period 
covered b}' this term antecedent to that date the so-called premium on gold was 
so small as to be a negligible element in the case. 

The followinir taljle irives the facts: 






THE COST OF A NATIONAL CRIME. 



POPULATION, NET KKVKNUE, AND NET EXPENDITUKE8 OF THE GOVEKNMENT FROM 187R 

TO 1897 (.lUNE 30), PER CAPITA OF THE REVENUES AND PER CAPITA OF 

KXPENUITURES. 



Year. 


Population. 


Net revenue. 


Per cap- 
ita of 
rev- 
enue. 


Net experiBes. 


Per eup- 
ita ot 
expeu- 

dluires. 


Presiili'iil. 


1878 
1879 
1880 
1881 
1882 
1883 
1884 
1885 
1886 
1887 
1888 
1889 
1890 
1891 
1892 
1893 
1894 
1895 
1896 
1897 


47,508,000 
48,866,000 
50,155,783 
51,316,000 
52,495,000 
53, 69 .S ,000 
54,911,000 
.56,118,000 
57,404,000 
58,680,000 
.->9,974,000 
61,289,000 
62,622,250 
63,975,000 
65.516.000 
66,946,000 
68,397,000 
69,878,000 
71,390,000 
72,937,000 


$257,763,879 00 
273,827,184 00 
333,526,611 00 
360,782,293 00 
403,525,250 00 
398,287,582 00 
348,519,870 00 
323,690,706 00 
333,439,727 00 
371,403,277 00 
379,266,075 00 
387,050,059 00 
403,080,982 00 
392,612,447 31 
354,937,784 24 
385,819,628 78 
297,722,019 25 
313,390,075 11 
326,976,200 38 
347,721,705 16 


5.42 
5.60 
6.65 
7.00 
7.68 
7.41 
6.36 
5.76 
5.86 
6.33 
6.32 
6.31 
6.43 
6.14 
5.42 
5.76 
4.37 
4.48 
4.58 
4.77 


$236,964,327 00 

166,!I47,884 00 

267,642,958 00 

260,712,888 00 

257,981,410 00 

265,408,138 00 

244,126,244 00 

260,226,935 00 

242,483,138 00 

267,932,179 00 

'267,924,801 00 

* 299,288,978 00 

^318,040, 710 00 

"365,773,905 35 

345,023,330 58 

383,47 7,954 49 

367,525,279 83 

356,195,298 29 

352,179,446 08 

365,774,159 57 


4.98 
5.46 I 
5.34 1 
5.08 J 
4.91 1 
4.94 [ 
4.44 ■ 
4.63 J 
4.22 1 
4.. 56 1 
4.46 ( 
4.88 J 
5.07] 
5.71 1 
5.27 ( 
5.73 J 
5.37 1 
5.10 , 
4.93 f 
5.01 J 


Hayes. 

Arthur. 

Cleveland. 

Harrison. 

Cleveland. 






$6,993,343,355 23 


5.81 


$5,891,629,994 19 


4.97 





1 This includes $8,270,842.46 of " premiums on purchase of bonds." 

2 This includes $17,292,36-2.65 

3 Tiiis includes $20,304,224.06 
^ This includes $10,401,220.61 



FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNK 30, 1898. 



Year. 


Population. 


Net revenue. 


Per cap- 
ita of 
rev- 
enue. 


Net expenses. 


Per cap- 
ita of 
expen- 
ditures. 


President. 


1898 


74,389,000 


$339,327,981 11 


4.56 


$443,368,582 00 


5.96 


McKinley- 



Summary and Analysis 1878-1897, Inclusive. 

(Made up by the compiler from annual reports slightly varying in the total from a final olllcial 

given above in the total.] 

Kevenues. Amount. 

Liquors and tobacco, 

domestic and foreign, $2,954,435,557 $2,476 

Sugar and molasses, 

1878 to 189U at 90c., $638,687,909 

1891 to 1897 .... $119,921,302 
Less l)ountie.s paid . . 35,000,000 84,921,302 723,609,211 

Miscellaneous receipts - 545,871,102 

Internal taxes other than liquors and tobacco . . . . 138.460,194 

income from general tariff, omitting liquors, tobacco, 

and sugar 2,573,842,070 2.16 

Total $6,936,218,134 $5,810 



Per 
c.npiUl. 



606 
467 
116 



4 THE COST OF A NATIONAL CHI Mi-:. 

EXPENBITDRES. 

Civil service $1,608,276.987.S1 Sl.;i4 

War S77,/)<S2, 140.47 .74 

Kavy 4-22,;33(i, 204.95 .35 

Indians 103,005,042.80 .14 $3,066,200,376.03 $2.57 

l>ension.s 1,S02,684,568.'J4 1.51 

Interest l.<)62,(;il),831.00 .89 2,865,304,399.94 2.40 

$5,931,504,775.97 $4.97 
Exee^is rev. '78 to '93, inc., $1,160,577,543 
Deficiencv, '94 to '97, inc., 155,864,184 
Net payment of debt 1,004,713,359.00 .84 

Total $6,936,218,134.97 $5.81 

II. 
From what sources have the revenues heeu derived? 

A glance at the above statement discloses the fact that the revenue fi'om 
liquors and tobacco averaged : 

Two dollars and forty-seven cents per head ...... $2,476 

Small internal taxes on banks, oleomargarine, etc. .... .116 

^liscellaneous pei-manent receipts ...... . .457 

.Sugar and molasses ........... -606 

Miscellaneous duties on imports other tlnin liquors, tobacco, and sugar . 2.160 

$5,815 

The excess of 84 cents per head of revenue above expenditures yield, $1,004,- 
713,359 surplus, w^hich was ajjplied to the reduction of the debt. 

It will be remarked that the revenvie from sugar and molasses from 1878 to 
1890 came to 90 cents i)er head. The duties on sugar abated under the McKinley 
act, partially restored imder the Wilson act, were under tiie Dingley act some- 
what less than from 1878 to 1890. 

Had these duties been maintained from 1891 to 1898 at 90 cents there would 
have been no deficiency in the revenue except the war expenditures of the 
present year, but on the contrary a surplus of about one hundred and fifty 
million dollars ($150,000,000) to be added to the previous reduction of debt. 

It will also be remarked that the revenue from liquors and tobacco, $2,476, 
with the small internal revenue taxes added, .116, making $2,592, covered the 
normal cost of conducting the government, including the cost of what is called 
the new navy, leaving only interest and pensions to be covered liy revenue from 
all other soiu'ces. 

It will also \m remarked that if twenty years is a sufficient period on whieli 
to base a rule, the normal expenditures of the nation are five dollars per head 
(.$5), at which rate they are less than half the expenditures of the United 
Kingdom of Great l^ritain and Ireland, where the burden of national taxation in 
ratio to person is muc^h less than in any other State or nation on tlH> Continent 
of Europe where militarism and compulsory service in army or navy renders the 
masses of the people subordinate to the military classes: very much less in ratio 
to the anniial product. 

HI. 

\Va> llie revenue d<!rived under tiu; Dingley bill sufficient to meet the normal 
expenditures in the last fiscal year? 

A coiiiiKnisdii of the items will disclose the facts. 

Statement of revtsmie luider the Dingley act in the fiscal year ending Jime 
30, 1898: 



THE COST OF A NATIONAL CRIME. 



.7 



Spirits :inri ninns 
IJeer . 
Tobacco 



Small internal n'voiiucs 



Miscellaneous : Permanent receipts 
Sujjar an«l molasses . 



Miscellaneous duty other than ii(|U(>r.-, tobacco, 
and suirar ....... 



.Ainouiil. 
$!)7,(i(iS,H;5S 
40,l;io,722 
40,116.805 

2,607, f)U9 

$186,009,004 
18.S.')2,278 
2y,o78,!io8 



I'cr capita. 

$i.:;i 

.54 

.62 



$2.47 

.04 

$2.51 
.25 
.40 



$234,790,280 $;3.1G 

104,537,701 1.40 



$;W9,327,l).Sl 



$4. .56 



It, therefore, appears that the Dingley act did not yield the necessary sum, 
five dollars per head, for the conduct of the government economically admin- 
istered. The deficiency was forty-four cents per head, which being computeil on 
the estimated population of 74,389,000 persons amounts to .$32,731,160. 

The actual expenditures of the Government were greatly 
increased by the war with Spain, amounting to five 
dollars and ninety-six cents per head . . . $5.96 

Revenue ........•• 4.56 



Revenue deficiency . 

Received from Union Pacific R.R. 

Actual deficiency 



$1.40 



$443,368,582 
339,327,981 

$104,040,601 
65,993,354 

$38,047,247 



5UBJECT OF Taxation. 



A comparison of the revenue under the Dingley bill with the receipts per 
capita under the previous systems, of 1883, the McKinley bill, and the Wilson bill 
combined, will be interesting. 

Kevenue per capita 

year by year, 

1878 to 1897 inc. 

Liquors and tobacco ....... $2,476 

Small internal revenue ...... 

Miscellaneous permanent ...... 

Sugar ......... 

Miscellaneous imports other than li<(U()is, tobacco, 
and suffar ........ 



.116 
.457 

.606 



Revenue per 
capita under 
Dingley l)iil. 

$2.47 
.04 
.25 
.40 



2.160 



1.40 



$5.81 $4.56 

It will be observed that the deficiency on duties on imports other than liquors, 
tobacco, and sugar is 76 cents per head as compared to previous acts, which 
amounts in round figures to $57,000,000. 



IV. 

AVould the Dingley bill have yielded a revenue in the present fiscal year 
ending June 30, 1898, sufliicient to meet the normal rate of expenditure 
under normal conditions at $5 per head? 

The total revenue on the computed population June 1, 1898, Avhich is the 
date established in the practice of the Treasury Department for ascertaining the 
per capita of receipts and expenditures at $5 per head on an estimated popula- 
tion of 76,011,000, would amount to $350,055,000. 

Bearing in mind that the revenue in the last fiscal year was at the rate of 
$4.56 per head, was attained under the disadvantage of a very large stock of 
sugar imported before the increase of duty, and that the tax on tea had only 
begun to yield revenue, it is probable that the present revenue taxes on sugar, 



b* THE COST OF A NATIONAL CRIME. 

tobacco, and tea will come to an increase of not less than 44 cents per head. 
On the other hand, the import of goods which are subject to the miscellaneous 
duties is diminishing notwithstanding the exhaustion of any stock imported 
before the Dingloy bill came into force, July 24, 1897. On the whole, it may be 
deemed fairly j)robable tluit the Dingley act without the subsequent war taxes 
would have yielded .*.') per head, but this favorable view is rendered doubtful 
by the diminishing imports of mi.scellaneous dutiable goods since June 30. 
In this estimate, however, many facts must be considered in comparing the 
very small yield of revenue from the miscellaneous duties under the Dingley act, 
of SI. 40 per head, with the $2.16 yielded on the average of the previous twenty 
years. 

No considerable revenue may hereafter be counted on from metals and 
metallic goods — formerly yielding a large revenue. No sum of any moment 
will be secured from iron, steel, or copper, or their j^roducts, which formerly 
yielded a large revenue. Supremacy in making the steel plates which are the 
principal element in the cost of tin plates has been coupled with the substitu- 
tion of machinery for the hand work of Wales in this branch of industry. Under 
these conditions a i*elatively very small force of skilled workmen at high wages 
are enabled to convert black plates into tin plates at so low a cost that it is more 
likely that we shall become large exporters of tin plates, rather than importers- 
The duties on wool are yielding much less than the expected revenue, having 
raised the cost of imported wool so much as to have forced the manufacturers to 
resort lo cotton and shoddy as a substitute. Aside from these subjects of former 
revenue the progress in many other manufactured products formerly imported 
has enabled us to expoil rather than to import. It therefore follows that even 
\f the miscellaneous duties of the Dingley bill were reduced for the purpose of 
increasing the revenue, the result would 2)robably be followed by as great a dis- 
appointment as has followed the enactment of the Dingley act, which was 
•expected to increase the revenue in the sum of $112,000,000 — if I rightly recall 
the speech of the framer on its introduction, which sum, had it been realized, 
would have carried the 2>er capita I'evenue in the last fiscal year to six dollars 
($6) per head in place of four dollars and fifty-six cents ($4.56) actually 
yielded. 

V. 

Will the Dingley bill, with the receipts that may be expected from the war rev- 
enue taxes now in force, suffice to meet the future expenditures on the 
assumption tliatthe surplus in the Treasury at the beginning of the war, with 
the i)roceeds of the war loan of $200,000,000, will have sufficed to cover the 
actual cost of the active war — which is a fair assumption ? 

The answer to this question will depend Avholly upon the more important 
question of how long we must endure this state of passive war into which the 
active war with Spain has brought us. By passive war is meant: 

First. To what extent are we to convert our navy, now more than ample 
for defensive purposes, into an offensive force. 

Second. In what numbers, at Avhat cost, and for what length of time are we 
to be subject to the burden of maintaining great armed forces in the Philippine 
Islands, in Cuba, and in Porto Rico ; also in Hawaii, if expensive fortifications 
and naval stations are undertaken, where only a police force of not over two hun- 
dred picked men will b(! required to keep order. 

Third. In wiiat measure and to wiiat numbers will the burden of 2)ensions 
be augmented for the support of the very large proportion of the white 
troops (or their widows and children), who will either die of climatic diseases or 
be disabled by fevers, malaria, and venereal disease, so as to be more or less 
incapable of self-support after the term has expired of their enlistment, or for 
which they may hereafter be drafted. 



THE COST OF A NATIONAL CRIME. 



Fourth. How iiuieh will the present revenue from sugar and tobaw;o be 
aiminished wluni the products of Cuba, Porto Rico, and tlio Philippine Islands 
vonie unchn- tlio same r(!venue acts as those which now apply to the United States 
and to Hawaii. 
It has been made i)hvin that the utmost revenue that can be lioped for 

under Ww Dingley act may be live dollars per liead . • . • $6.00 
In that computation flie duties on sugar must go ui) from 40 cents to 75 
cents per head, wliile the disadvantage of foreign toljacco on account 
of duties may now be about ;") cents per head. Sum of reduction not 
less than, pn)l)ably more • -^^ 

llemainder $4.20 

*The war revenue act is now yielding a little less than two dollars per 
head and may be safely computed at that sum, as the cliief sources are 
from the stamp taxes, which took ellect at their probable per capita 
maximum at once, and the increase on beer which will not probably 
diminish its consumption. Additional war taxes .... 2.00 

Total ^56.20 

On this estimate the increase in revenue above the normal expenditures of 
five dollars per head will be one dollar and twenty cents, which, assessed on the 
computed population of the present fiscal year, would yield only $91,213,200 — a 
sum probably wholly insuflicient to meet the increasing burden of the state of 
passive war which the occupation of the Philippine Islands, Cuba, Porto Rico, 
and Hawaii has imposed upon the taxpayers of this country. Others have 
computed the loss of revenue on sugar, tobacco, rice, fruits, and other products 
of the Philippine and West India Islands, when brought under the revenue acts 
of the United States and Hawaii, at $100,000,000, or over $1.25 per head. See 
Mr. Herbert Myrick's address to the National Grange Conference, in Concord, N.H. 

Under these conditions the public will wait with some impatience for the de- 
velopment of the proposed policy of the Secretary of the Treasury in meeting 
the danger of a continuous deficit and with great anxiety for the message of the 
President on the existing conditions of passive war. 

Congress may then be called upon to decide whether or not this condition of 
passive war in the holding of tropical islands by armed forces is to cease at an 
early day or is to be continued under the necessity of adding by direct taxation a 
large sum to our present burden, coupled with a heavy increase in the future 
burden, in order to provide annually for a very large portion of each year's en- 
listed men who will be annually disabled by fever, malaria, and venereal disease. 

The figures used in this analysis for the last fiscal year are from official data, 
subject to very slight changes in the ensuing report of the Secretary of the Ti'easury . 

I have endeavored to present the exact data on which every person can com- 
pute the probable cost of the imperial or expansion policy as it is now called. 

I will append one question to each reader. 

How much increase of taxation are you willing to bear, and how many of 
your neighbors' sons are you ready to sacrifice by fever, malaria, and venereal 
disease iu order to extend the sovereignty of the United States over the VVest 
Indies and the Philippine IsUinds? By such policy we throw away our previous 
exemption from militarism, which constitutes one of our chief advantages in 
establishing low cost of production coupled with high rates of wages or earnings, 
— computed by myself at six per cent, per annum on our total annual product, — 
by which advantage we were attaining a paramount control of trade on the 
export of our goods to every port of the world of commerce. 

EDWARD ATKINSON. 
Boston, Nov. 21, 1898. 

* This estimate is one-third larger than the official estira.ite given out in annual reports since pub- 
lished, Dec. 7,1898. 



PROSPhJ ■ 11 VI-: DIJFK 'IT. 



PR()SrK( riVK DEFICIT 

IN TIIK FISCAL YKAR KXDING ,Jl\E ;W, 1900, 

i^loO, ()(>() MOO, probabhi more. 

[Computed ■Tiuuiary -J, 1899. J 

Ky EDWARD ATKINSON. 



In previous guarded estimate.s of the px'ospective cost n{' tin; exp.insiuii or 
imperialist policj' I have been too conservative. The full report of the Secretary 
of the Treasury and the estimates submitted in detail by the several depai'tmenta 
are now before me. From these official documents the following facts are given : 

The estimates of tiie War Department for the fiscal year ending June 30, 
1900, ai-e as follows : 

Executive Department $2,373,866 00 

Military Establishment 145,119,43100 

Public Works 42,852,991 00 

Total $190,346,288 00 

Naval Estimates. 

Executive Depart ment $502,280 00 

Naval Establishment 39,114,652 00 

Public Works 8,013,599 00 

Total $47,630,531 00 

Pensions 145,233,830 00- 

<'ivil, judicial, and all other expenditm-cs, including postal defi- 

i-icncy 156,837,729 00 

Summary. 

Army and navy 237,976,819 00 

Per capita $3 05 

Pensions . .- 145,233,830 00^ 

Per capita ........ 1 Si! 

Total, military, naval, and pensions .... $383,210,649 00 

Per capita $4 91 

Civil, judicial, etc 156,837,729 00 

Per capita 2 01 

Total for all )nn-])oses $540,048,378 00 

Per capita $6 92 

In order to meet these expenditures the Secretary of the Treasury computes 
tlie probable revenues — 

From customs $205,000,000 00 

From internal revenue 2S5,()0(),000 00 

From miscellaneous sources 20,000,000 00 

Tol.-il $510,000,000 00 

Vvx cajjila ...... $li 54 

Delirienrv. a fraction ov.'r 30,000,000 GO 



ri;(tsi'i:(Ti\-i-: Dhiricrr. \) 



In respect to revenue, if the sovereignty of the United States is extended 
over tlie Philippine Ishuids, Porto Rico, :iiid Cuba, the (expected customs rcv<;iiuc, 
computed by the Secretary of the Treasury at two huudrcMl and live million 
dollars ($205,000,000). will Ix' diniinishod about scvcnty-livi; iniiiiiMi .joilars 
($75,000,000), for reasons wiiich will hv. subscMiuently given. 

The army and navy estimates appear lo be very inadequate. For reasons 
hereafter given it is probable that the expenditures nuist be increased to about 
eight dollars ($H) per head, or from live hundred and forty million dollars ($540,- 
000,000) to six hundred and twenty-four million dollars (.f6'J4, 000,000). In that 
event the deficiency of the year would come to one hundred and ninety mil- 
lion dollars ($190,000,000). A deduction may, perhaps, be made from this sum 
in view of the fact that the number of volunteer troops on which the computations 
of the Secretary of War are based exceeds the number called for by the otTicers 
of the army itself. We may therefore possibly redu(-c the probable deficit to a 
minimum of one hundred and fifty million dollars ($150,000,000). 

In support of this comijutation the following facts are submitted : 

It is the custom of the Secretary of the Treasury to call upon the several de- 
partments to submit their estimates of what each department will require. The 
basis of these estimates is published in full detail in a quarto volume. For the 
year under consideration it is Document No. 12 of the House of Representatives. 

In the computation for the army service submitted to and adopted by the 
Secretary of the Treasury no provision is made for a very large part of what 
must be the necessary expenses if the policy of expansion or of military occupa- 
tion of the Philippines, Cuba, and Porto Rico is adopted. The muiiber of troops 
estimated upon is in excess of the one hundred thousand (100,000) demanded by 
the army ollicers, but there is no estimate implying an exctess of cost in sustain- 
ing troops in tropical countries or in far-distant places. There is no estimate for 
an increase of service-pay under such conditions. There is no estimate of the 
cost of continuously moving troops to and from these di.stant points. There is no 
estimate of the excess of cost of maintaining troops in health and vigor in tropi- 
cal climates. There is no estimate of the necessary expense of raising every year 
a new force Cijual to about one-third of the entire force required in order to fill 
the annual gaps which will be caused by death and disease. According to the 
French experience the death rate in the tropics is ten (10) per cent. According 
to the experience of the English army in India the disabilities from sickness re- 
«iuiring a return of the troops year by year is twenty (20) per cent., more than 
one-half of the British troops in India becoming infected with venereal disease. 
i\xe (5) per cent, being.invalided and sent home each year from this class of di- 
sease only. By comparison of all the data it becomes apparent that about one- 
third of tiie white troops stationed in tropical climates must be replaced year by 
year by fresh levies to make up for death and disability. 

Under the title of " Public Works of the War Department^' there is no hint 
of any probable expenditure outside the limits of the present United States. 
There is no estimate of the cost of restoring or maintaining fortifications and m- 
creasing the land armaments of the Philippines, Porto Rico, Cuba, and Hawau. 
There is no estimate of the cost for permanent barracks, hospitals, or other 
buildings. 

Under the head of the navy there is no estimate submitted for the cost of 
constructing new ships of war ; only for maintaining the existing navy and com- 
pleting the ships already ordered by Congress. There is no estimate of the cost 
of establishing coaling stations, maintaining docks, or for buildings for the use of 
the navy, either at Hawaii, Porto Rico, Cuba, or the Philippines. 

In fact, upon the examination of the estimates submitted by the Army and 
Navy Departments no one could tell that there would be any call for spending 



10 PROSPECTIVE DEFICIT. 

any money in or upon these tropical islands, except for the support of troops on 
the basis of tlie average cost of troops stationed within the limits of the United 
States under wholesome and liealthful conditions. 

Again, under the head of pensions, Secretary Gage calls for a less sum than 
is now being expended, apparently counting upon that lessening of the present 
pension roll which must ensue from lapse of time. There is no sign or hint of 
any pension being granted to the survivors of the Spanish war or for the support 
of twenty per cent, at least of all troops sent out each year to the tropics who will 
be brought back wholly or partly disabled. 

Under these conditions it is not an excessive estimate to add from seventy- 
live to one hundred million dollars ($75,000,000 to $100,000,000) to the figures 
of the Secretary, deducting whatever may be right for lessening the number of 
troops estimated upon in the army estimates to the number of one hundred thou- 
sand or more demanded by the military officers of experience. 

In the matter of revenue Secretary Gage holds out the expectation to secure 
two hundred and five million dollars ($205,000,000) from duties on imports. 
That estimate is based on the continued receipt of duties on sugar, tobacco, 
cio-ars, rice, and tropical fruits. The decisions of the courts are, however, con- 
tinuous and final to the effect that whenever the jurisdiction of the United States 
is extended over an area of territory the inhabitants thereof become entitled to 
move without let or hindrance throughout the country, and subject to the same 
laws for the collection of revenue as have been previously in force in the United 
States. It therefore follows that if the sovereignty of Porto Rico and the Phil- 
ippine Islands is assumed their sugar and other products, like those of Hawaii, 
are entitled to free entry. It would follow that all duties must be taken from the 
sugars of Cuba; otherwise Cuba would be ruined. {Vide Sect. 1977 U.S Stat- 
utes, cited herewith.) 

The loss of revenue under these conditions would be approximately seventy- 
five million dollars ($75,000,000). 

The only conclusions which can be derived from these official data are 
therefore as follows : 

Deficit computed by the Secretary of the Treasury for the fiscal 
year ending June 30, 1900 $30,000,000 

Add for the necessary increase in the army, navy, and pension 
estimates to cover the extra expense of military occupation, 
armaments, fortifications, renewal of forces, increase of pen- 
sions, and for other matters of positive necessity under such 
conditions, say 85,000,000 

Total deficit on the Secretary's computed revenue . . $115,000,000 
Add prospective loss of revenue from sugar, tobacco, cigars, rice, 
and tropical fruits, unless some way can be found for evading 
what are apparently the decisions of the courts in this matter, 75,000,000 

Probalile deficit $190,000,000 

So far as we have any information, the standing army caUcd for by the 
principal officers of the army will number one hundred thousand (100,000) men, 
of whom it is computed by them that eighty thousand (80,000) will be required 
for the military occupation of Porto Rico, Culja, the Philippine Islands, and for 
garrisons and military service in Hawaii. Tliat would leave only twenty thousand 
(20,000) men in the domestic service, where twenty-five thousand (25,000) are 
said to have been insufficient. 

Jt will be observed that with 22,500 men already in ]\I;<nila more troops were 



PlWSl'ECTIVK DEFICIT. U 



called lor to meet insurgents at Iloilo. Three regiments were at once despatched 
— yet more troops have been computed for CuIki than for Uk; riiilippinos ! 

The computation of the Secretary of War on which the estimates are 
submitted appears to contemplate a standing army of about fifty thousand 
(50,000) men and a volunteer army of about one hundred thousand (100,000) 
men, but it is very difHcult to make out on what basis the confused figures of this 
estimate are made up. The facts cannot be ascertained exactly without an oflicial 
iiHluiry. It is probable that the estimates of tiie War Department contemplate 
the absolute necessity of permanent camps in addition to the regular army in 
domestic service Avherein recruits may be trained to supply the gaps by disease 
and death in that part of the army which is in service in the tropics. According 
to the experience of the English and the French, more than two thousand (2,000) 
recruits would be required every montli to maintain the force of eighty thousand 
(80,000) men from the start. It is therefore probable that no reduction can be 
made for excess in the number of forces comi)utcd by the Secretary of War 
above the claims made by the army officers. 

In order to forestall any possible criticism or charge of bias in this compu- 
tation we may deduct forty million dollars (.$40,000,000) from the sum previ- 
ously added, still leaving the net deficiency one hundred and fifty million 
dollars ($150,000,000). Excess of expenditures, $75,000,000. Probable defi- 
ciency of revenue, .$75,000,000 

It will be remarked that the normal cost of the government of this country, 
civil, judicial, army, navy, public works, interest, and pensions, has been for 
twenty years, ending June 30, 1897, a fraction under five dollars ($5) per head, 
which rate assessed on 78,000,000 would come to $390,000,000. 

The lowest expenditure of which any suitable estimate can be made of the 
cost of the government under the expansion policy, coupled with the military 
occupation of the Philippines, Cuba, and Porto Rico, is eight dollars ($8) per 
head, which rate assessed on 78,000,0;J0 people would come to $G2-4,0OO,O00, 
—a difterence of three dollars ($3), which being assessed on 78,000,000 of 
people amounts to two hundred and thirty-four million dollars ($234,000,000). 
Of this sum not less than one hundred and fifty million dollars ($150,000,000) 
must be raised by new taxes in addition to those which are now in force. 

In order to meet this estimate of cost, an increase in exports and imports 
yielding ten (10) per cent., to the amount of $2,340,000,000, must be attained. 
That is to say, our present volume of exports and imports must be doubled, and 
this tax must be collected from them, before any profit can be gained from an 
increase of commerce under this policy of expansion, which has been so truly 
designated by President McKinley as " Criminal Aggression." 

It will be observed that the excess of the money received from Pacific rail- 
roads on bonds previously paid has been expended under the first appropriation 
of money in the Treasury to meet the beginning of the Spanish war. The 
proceeds of the war loan have nearly all been expended, and that sum will be 
exhausted by May 1st or earlier in making payments still due to the active war 
with Spain. It therefore follows that the deficit in the fiscal year beginning 
July 1, 1899, ending June 30, 1900, must either be met by increased taxation or 
nuist else be drawn from the present reserve now in the United States Treasury. 
The first duty of the Congress now elected, which will meet December, 1899, 
will be to restore the reserve in the Treasury to a safe and suitable condition 
by an immediate increase of taxation to the amount of the computed deficit. 

In this computation I have endeavored to state the facts which are developed 
in the official reports, without bias or color. I should be glad to have the advo- 
cates of expansion go through this matter and point out the errors, if any, which 
may exist in this statement. 



12 PROSPECTIVE DEFICIT. 



It will be ap))arent to every business man tiiat the present favorable aspect 
of afl'airs in almost every line of Avork must be changed as soon as it becomes 
evident that from and after ]\Iay 1st, or thereabout, the reserve of the Treasury 
will be drawn upon at the rate of ten to fifteen million dollars ($10,000,000 to 
§15,000,000) per month continuously in order to meet the deficit disclosed by 
these facts. Unless there is an extra session of Congress there could be no 
remedial legislation in less than about one year. In that j-ear the wliole business 
of the country will be placed in uncertainty by the depletion of the I'eserve of the 
Treasury in the alisencc of any soimd banking legislation at the present session of 
Congress. 

It will also be observed that if the computations herein are justified, the cost 
of army, navy, and pensions will be over six dollars ($6.00) per head, or about 
fifty per cent, above the heaviest burden that militarism now imposes on any 
country in Europe. 

Pkoposed Intekkogatokies. 
Neither the estimates of the Secretary of the Treasury nor the foregoing com- 
putation can be justified without a full and detailed reply to the following 
questions : 

War Department. 
In making up the estimate of expenditures in the fiscal year ending June 30, 
1900, given in the report of the Secretary of the Treasury, which is as follows : 

Executive Department ......... $2,373,866 

Military Establishment 145,119,431 

Public Works 42,852,991 

Total $190,346,288 

First. — What number of officers and men is it contemplated to retain in 
the present United States in domestic service ? 
Computed cost of this service? 
Second. — What number of officers and men is it contemplated to keep, under 
existing or probabh; future conditions, in the militai'y occupation of — 
A. — Philippine Islands? 

Computed cost of this service ? 
K. — Porto Rico? 

Computed cost of this service? 
C. — Cuba? 

Computed cost of this service ? 
I). — Hawaii '.' 

('i)m])ut(!d cost of this service ? 
Third. — What nuinl)er of men is it contemplated to keep in reserve in camp 
or barracks in ord(;r to maintain the full luimber of troops in military service in 
the tropics? 

Ciiinputcd cost of this service ? 
Fo/irth. — What is the expected death rate of troops — 
In the Philippines ? 
In Cuba and Porto Riccj ? 

Fift//. — What is the death rate of white troops stationed in the troi)ical 
.colonies of — 

A. — (ireat lirilain ? 
IJ. — France ? 



piiosPECTivE niU'icir. 13 

C —Holland? 

Sixth. — What is tho eoinputeil ratio of sickness in tlie tropics — 

A. — From fevers, malaria, small-pox, and similar <liseasi;s? 

B. — From venereal diseases ? 

Seventh. — What is the ratio of sickness in the British, French, and Dutch 
tropical possessions, separating venereal from other diseases ? 

Eiijhlh. — Is it contemplated to regulate venereal disease! by a license system 
coupled with frequent examinations? 

Ninth. — At what rate and in what i)ro})ortiun is it comi)ut(id that men will 
be sent home invalided from disease — 

A. — From Philippine Islands? 

B. — From Cuba? 

C. — From Porto llico and Hawaii ? 

Tenth. — What sum if any is included in the estimates for a permanent or 
adequate system of transport of troops ? 

Eleventh. — What sum if any is included in the estimates for the estal)lish- 
ment or renovation of fortilications and for the supply of guns — 

A- — In Philippine Islands? 

B. — In Porto Rico ? 

C. — In Cuba? 

D. — In Hawaii ? 

Twelfth. — What sum is included, in the estimates for barracks or buildings 
of any kind, separating the works on the coast from the necessary health canton- 
ments upon the hills, in the respective places? 

Navy Department. 

In making up the estimate of expenditure in the fiscal year ending June 30» 
1900, given in the report of the Secretary of the Treasury, which is as follows : 

Executive Department $502,280 00 

Naval Establishment 39,114,652 00 

Public Works 8,013,599 00 



Total $47,630,531 00 

jTirst. — What computation if any is included for the construction of naval 
vessels recommended but not yet ordered by Congress ? 

Second. — What computation if any is included for manning such additional 
vessels ? 

Third. — What computation if any is included for the establishment upon 
land of coaling stations, piers, buildings, or other appliances necessary to the 
naval stations contemplated — 

A. — In the Philippine Islands ? 

B. — In Porto Rico ? 

C. — In Cuba ? 

D. — In Hawaii? 

Treasury Department. 

In making up the estimate for pensions in the fiscal year ending June 30, 
1900 — 

Fir.<il, — What sum was included if any to cover pensions that may be 
granted for disabilities incurred in the war with Spain? 



14 PROSPECTIVE DEFICIT. 

Second. — What sum if any was included to cover pensions that ma}- be 
granted for disabilities incurred in the militaiy occupation of the Philippine 
Islands, Porto Rico, Cuba, and Hawaii, or for widows and children of those who 
may die in this service? 



JJniformity of Taxatiox — Effect of Expansion upon Revenue. 

It is claimed that the United States may assume sovereignty over Porto Rico 
and the Philippine Islands, may establish military and civil control over their 
inlial)it:ints, and by act of Congress impose upon them internal taxes and duties 
on imjjorts without regard to the revenue act in force within the present area of 
the United States. It is also held that after having accepted cession and sove- 
reignty the imports of sugar, tobacco, rice, and fruits from that part of the United 
States then known as Porto Rico and the Philippine Islands may be subjected to 
the same duties which are imposed on imports from foreign countries that may 
then be in force in that part of the United States which is upon the continent of 
North America. With the aid of counsel of repute (Mr. Moorfield Storey) the 
subsequent decisions of the Supreme Court and other dicUi are cited, nearly all 
taken from an exhaustive pamphlet entitled " National Expansion under the Con- 
stitution," by Mr. Edwin Burritt Smith, of the Chicago bar, or from an article on 
the "Constitutional Aspects of Annexation," by Carman F. Randolph, of Morris- 
town, New Jersey, published in the " Harvard Law Review." January, 1899. 

Before giving these citations, attention may be called to the provisions of the 
Statutes of the United States : 



Revised Statutes U.S. Title XXIV. Sectio7i 1977. — Eqiial Rights under the 

Law. 

All persons within the jurisdiction of the United States shall have the same 
right in every State and Territory to make and enforce contracts, to sue, be par- 
ties, give evidence, and to the full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings 
for the security of pei-sons and property as is enjoyed by white citizens, and shall 
be subject to like punishment, pains, penalties, taxes, licenses, and exactions of 
ever}' kind, and to no other. 

Territorii — A tract of land belonging to or :i;iilr tin- dominion of a 
prince or state, lying at a distance from the parent i-.umtry or from the seat of 
government. — Webstefs Dictionary . 

Citations. 

1. —Our institutions rest upon the proposition that governments derive their 
just powers from the consent of the governed. This consent means the active 
l)articipation by the governed in a government which is their own and which they 
alone control. Our rulers are the elected servants of the people. 

2. — The President and the Congress of the United States must govern all new 
aciiuisitions of territory under and by virtue of the Constitution. 

In the language of the Supreme Court, " it cannot be admitted that the king 
of Spain could Ijy treaty or otherwise impart to the United States any of his royal 
prerogatives; and much less can it l)e admitted that they have capacity to receive 
oi' power to exercise tluiui. Every natif)n ac([uiring territory, l)y treaty or other- 
wise, must hold it suljject to the constitution and laws of its own government." 

Pollard V. Ilagan, ;i Howard, Mil'. 



PROSPECTIVE DEFICIT. 15 



3. — "All persons bom or naturalized in tlu' Llnitcd States and subject to 
the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of tiie United Slates and of the State wlierein 
they reside." — Fourteentli Amendment. 

Conj^ress has no authority " to restrict tiie efl'ect of birth, declared l)y the 
Constitution to constitute a sullicicMit and complete rigiit to citizensiiip." 

United States v. Woiii; Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 705. 

All citizens of the United Stales ha\-e the rigiit to enter its seaports, to pass 
freely from one part of its territory to another, and to rcsitie in any State. 

Crandall v. Nevada, G Wall. 35. 

By the annexation of territory, says Chief-Justice Marshall, " the relations 
of the inhabitants with their former sovereign are dissolved, and new relations are 
created between them and the government which has accjuired their territory. 
The same act which transfers the territory transfers the allegiance of those who 
remain in it." 

American Ins. Co. v. Canter, 1 Peters, 542. 

The transfer which imposes the allegiance confers the rights of a citizen. 

From these established principles it follows that the inhabitants of the 
Philippines — Malay, Spanish, or Chinese — become American citizens, entitled to 
settle in any State and to become citizens thereof. Ciiina will enter the United 
States through the gate of Manila. 

4. — The Constitution also provides that "all duties, imposts, and excises 
shall be uniform throughout the United States." Congress has no power to except 
any Territory of tlie United States from the operation of this provision. 

5. —The United States is, in the language of Ciiief-Juslice Marshall," the name 
given to our great Republic, which is composed of States and Territories. The 
District of Columbia and the territory west of the Missouri is not less within the 
United States than Maryland or Pennsylvania; it is not less necessai-y, on the 
pi-inciples of the Constitution, that uniformity in the imposition of imports, duties, 
and excises should be observed in the one than in the other." 
Loughborough v. Blake, 5 Wheaton, 317. 

Hence all the duties now collected from sugar, tobacco, rice, and fruit — from 
seventy-five to one hundred million dollars — will be lost if we annex the islands 
freed from Spain, and this deficit must be met by new taxes, in addition to the 
new taxes which our increased expenses will require. 

These are results from vvhich we cannot escape under our Constitution if we 
Avould, and the examples of other nations do not help us, for the reason thus 
stated by Abrahan Lincoln : 

" Most governments have been based practically on the denial of the equal 
rights of men . . : ours begins by affirming those rights. They said, Some 
men are too ignorant and vicious to sliare in government. Possibly so, said we, 
and by your system you would always keep them ignorant and \'icious. 

' ' No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent. 
I say this is the leading principle, the sheet anchor of American republicanism." 

The authors of the Declaration of Independence " meant to set up a standard 
maxim for free society, which should be familiar to all, and revered by all ; con- 
stantly looked to, constantly labored for, and ever, though never perfectly 
attained, constantly approximated, and thereby constantly spreading and deepen- 
ing its influence and augmenting tlie happiness and value of life to all peoi)lc oj 



U) PROSPECnVE DEFICIT. 

all colors ccertjwlierc. ... Its authors meant it to be, as, thank God, it is 
now proving itself, a sliunbling-blouk to all those who in after times might 
seek to turn a free j^eople back into tlie hateful paths of depolisni ! " 

Lincoln at Springfield, June 26, 1857. 

It was Stephen A. Douglas who said in reply: " They desired to express 
by that i)hrase (all men) white men, men of European birth and European 
descent, and had no reference either to the negro, the savage, Indians, the Fee- 
gee, the i\Ialay, or any other inferior and degraded race, when they spoke of the 
equality of men." 

And Lincoln Avho said : 

" When the white man governs himself, that is self-government ; but when 
he governs himself and also governs another man, that is more than self-govern- 
ment, that is despotism." 

Conclusion. 

The pretexts upon which this so-called policy of Imperialism is promoted 
consist of mixed motives of piety, profits, and patriotism. 

To the advocates who hope for a great field in missionary service we may 
put the question. How many of the youth of America will you subject to vice as a 
sacrifice for each heathen convert that you may make ? 

To the advocates of the expansion of commerce we will put the question. 
How much will you increase the power of the people of the Philippine Islands to 
consume American goods when in fact during the last ten yeai's they have bought 
of us on the average one hundred thousand dollars' ($100,000) worth a year? 
Yet we have bought of them annually in the same period an average of seven 
million dollars' ($7,000,000) worth, mainly of sugar and hemp, and from the 
export duties on these jn-oducts the Spanish government has secured its principal 
revenue ; such export taxes being forbidden by the Constitution of the United 
States. 

To those who set up the jjretext of patriotism we call attention to the reflex 
of militarism, the pauper labor of Continental Europe waiting for its remedy 
until the masses Avho carry the guns turn them against the classes who carry the 
sword — to their oppression in the conscript service, which is eating out the heart 
of Europe. 

To the workmen we put the question, How long will you bear an additional 
tax on the articles of common use which are consumed not in jjroportion to 
ability, but in proportion to numbers, from which the principal revenues of the 
United States are collected, such additional tax upon every one of your families 
of five persons surely coming to not less than fifteen dollars ($15) a year. 

Thepi'etexts are piety, profits, and patriotism ; the conclusions vice, venality, 
and pauperism. These are the constants which .surely accompan}- tlie rule of 
blood and iron and the control of the masses by tlie military classes. 

EDWARD ATKINSON. 



THE HELL ()E WAH AM) EIS I' IIX A LI 1 IIS. 17 



n. 



THE llELI. OF WAR AND ITS PENALTIES. 

President McKinley said rightly that to allow a war undertaken in the name 
of humanity to be perverted into a war of conquest would be a crime, but I doubt 
if lie was fully aware of the penalty which would at once be met by the criminal 
nation. 

A war of conquest or any permanent occupatio*n of tropical countries by 
white troops brings not only fevers and malaria upon them of well-known kinds, 
but yet worse, more fatal and more certain to bring moral and physical degen- 
eration upon them, is the infection of venereal disease. 

There are many good people whose sympathies have been aroused by the 
anticipation of being enabled to carry the benefits of Protestant Christianity and 
of personal liberty to the oppressed in the West Indies and the Philippine Islands. 
We may even admit all that is urged in favor of making the conquest of these 
islands upon these grounds, but before we undertake this jjhilanthropic enterprise 
may it not be judicious to count the cost? I do not mean the money cost and 
the necessity Avhich has lately been made very plain of adding new taxes even to 
the war revenues now being collected. That burden we can bear if we must. 
The greater cost will be the corruption of the blood through the infection of every 
force that will be annually called out to maintain our rule. 

It may bo well to ask all who are imbued with this missionary sympathy, 
how many young men of our own brotherhood are j'ou willing to sacrifice for 
each convert ? How many of your own sons will you expose to sure infection 
and degeneration in the conduct of your philanthropic purpose? Or will you 
satisfy your own consciences by consenting to the necessary conscription of other 
people's sons when it presently becomes impossible to maintain our armed forces 
in these islands without a draft ? 

I know that this is a very unsavory subject and that 1 am using terms which 
are not commonly spoken aloud, but it happens that in the course of my social 
studies my attention has been called to this social evil, and 1 think I should be 
wanting in my duty if I did not call public attention to the dangers in the plainest 
way. 

To that end I lately addressed a letter to President AIcKinley, of which the 
following is a slightly condensed copy : 

' ' President William McKinley : 

"Sir: I venture to present a protest against any longer occupation of the 
Philippine Islands, of Cuba, and of Porto Rico, or the use of any larger forces 
than are needed to enable the people of these islands to frame and form a method 
of o-overnment under which personal liberty and individual rights may be estab- 
lished, and to enter upon this undertaking. Whether or not they are capable of 
maintaining such governments after their being enabled to do so by the removal 
of the Spanish rule is not a matter with which we have any permanent concern. 

'• I present this case, as hereinafter stated, in my personal capacity, pending 
the organization of what will probably become a great national Anti-Imperialist 
League, founded on the principles of Washington's Farewell Address, fo'' 



18 THE HELL OF WAR AND ITS PENALTIES. 



which the preparations are being made and the consultations are being had 
throughout the country. 

" To the extent named tlie burilen of temporary occupation must be assumed ; 
beyond that, any exercise of dominion or sovereignty would be as unwarranted in 
principle and as inconsistent with the maintenance of our republican institutions 
as it would be dangerous to the armed forces required. 

"The political wrong of assuming sovereignty by force over any part of 
these islands after a war undertaken in the name of humanity has been so force- 
fully stated by yourself that no words of mine could bring out the iniquity of such 
a course more plainly, but it is feared that your hand may be forced again, as it 
was apparently, into a premature declaration of war by tlie acts of Senators whose 
apparent judii-ial reports of what they thought they saw in Cuba were disproved a 
week later by one of the constituents of the one who had the most influence, who 
followed after him, and has since been fully disproved by the facts of the case. 
It is therefore now the right and duty of every true and patriotic citizen to sup- 
port you in resistance to these evil influences by bringing out in the plainest tei'ms 
the physical and social dangers and evils which must and will ensue if large 
armed forces are kept upon land for any length of time upon any of these islands 
and from which naval jforces can only be protected by keeping them off the land. 

"The greatest and most unavoidable danger to which these forces will be 
exposed will neither be fevers nor malaria ; it will be venereal diseases in their 
worst and most malignant form. It is this which has reduced the population of 
Hawaii to a degenerated remnant, four per cent, of whom are isolated under 
sentence of death from leprosy ; a disease of a similar type, perhaps not from the 
same cause, which gives evidence of the utter degeneracy of these poor people. 
It is fortunate, on the testimony of one of the highest judicial officers of the 
Sandwich Islands lately in Boston, that no large armed force will be required in 
Hawaii, admitting that none such could be sustained without infection. His view 
is that one hundred and fifty to two hundred middle-aged men of established 
character would suffice for all the exhibition of force that maybe needed to main- 
tain order. 

" The records of the British army in India and China, and the condition of 
the English troops in Hong Kong, lately reported to lue by an English gentle- 
man who has been studying social conditions throughout the world, are horrible 
in the extreme. He stated that fifty per cent, of the English troops in Hong 
Kong were infected with venereal disease every year. It is Avell known that 
while there may be an apparent cure this disease works corruption of the blood 
to the third and fourth generation, ending in degeneracy. 

" Tiie records of the Medical Department and the testimony of the visitoi's to 
our own camps in this country, coupled with the observations of members of Con- 
gress with whom I have consulted, prove that this phase of the hell of war had 
taken firm hold of our troops even before they had been exposed to the greater 
hazard at tiieir points of destination in Cuba, Porto Rico, and ]\[anila. 

" The precautions i-eported to me by commercial men wiio arc; thoroughly 
familiar with the conditions of these places, especially INIanila, made necessary 
even on tlie part of private persons lest the infection should be carried from lava- 
tories and tlie like, indicate the utterly corrupt condition of all tlu; principal cities 
in these islands. 

" It is no time to mince words or to forl)ear plain speech under a false sense of 
delicacy. These words must be spoken. This danger must be publicly named 
and these facts must l)e widely known, and the exposure to tlie corruption of the 
young blood of this nation must be sto])p(;d. It is not a pleasant duty, but I shall 
assume this duty. The final responsibility will rest upon yours(!lf and all who 
have authority. Unless you would invite the execration of the mothers of our 



THE HELL OF WAR AND ITS PENALTIES. i\) 

land and cause your administration to stand recorded in history with utter condem- 
iiatiDii, you cannot ignore or sli<^ht these facts and this danj^er, whicli is an evil 
worse than death, worse tlian war; to try to ignore it anil not to provide against 
it in every possible manner by avoiding the inclusion of these islands in our 
domain will be to the disgrace of those who shall bring this danger of corruption 
of the blood upon our country, — a greater disgrace than all other losses of honor 
combined. 

" Measures arc being taken to bring conclusive evidence of the facts whicli I 
Jiave stated before Congress at the earliest possil)le date. I iiave sent to England 
for the medical records. I trust that you will order the (.'ommission now engaged 
in the investigation of the war to deal with this subject. 

" I pledge to you the support of every right-minded man and woman in your 
eilbrt to carry out your declared purpose of limiting the exercise of force by this 
country to the cause of lunuanity without })ermitting it to degenerate into a war 
of conquest. ' Imperialism,' so-called, is an evil in all its phases, wiictlier 
viewed from the political or economical side, but it is moi'e sure to promote moral, 
physical, and social degradation than it is to work evil in any other dii'ection. 

" It is my purpose as soon as our organizations are completed, and as fast 
as measures can be taken, to give jjublicity to these facts throughout the country. 

" I hope it may be consistent with your present duty to reply to this letter for 
publication, to the end that we may again have occasion to express our sympatliy 
with you for the difficult position in which you have been placed, and to give 
you the assurance of our continued support ; not only Republicans, but the great 
body of Independent and Sound Money Democrats who turned the scale in the 
presidential election, who will give you continued assurance of their supjiort in the 
declaration which you made against the perversion of the war conducted in 
the name of humanity into a war of conquest. That perversion is now disguised 
by those who advocate it, but the forced extension of the sovereignty of this nation 
over o-reat populations who can never be assimilated with us politically, socially, 
or industrially is nothing more and nothing less than for this country to under- 
take a war of conquest which will be condemned and is condemned by every right- 
minded man and woman in our land. 

" I knoAv from previous experience how dense is the screen by which the sup- 
porters of bad measures attempt to surround the chief executive of the nation. 
When the Inflation Bill of 1874 was impending, Vice-President Wilson called 
upon me, — knowing I had a wide correspondence with sound money men 
throughout the West ; he stated to me that under the pressure which was be- 
ing brought to bear upon the President in Washington, he was being misled 
into the belief that public opinion required him to sign the Inflation Bill, and 
Mr. Wilson called upon me to bring to bear upon him the true public opinion 
of the country to the utmost of my ability. I immediately telegraphed to a num- 
ber of men in the great Western cities who had agreed to act together in any emer- 
gency to send in protests against the Inflation Bill day by day, signed by a few 
men of prominence, — preferably those known to the President, — wiiile protesting 
meetings in New York and Boston were immediately organized, the latter by 
myself. The evidence was thus placed before President Grant of an overwhelm- 
ing kind, that lie Avas being misled and deceived by the advocates of bad legisla- 
tion who surrounded him. 

"After his term had expired I met President Grant. He turned tlie conversa- 
tion to the financial issue, saying to me that I was entitled to know the history of 
the veto of the Inflation Bill. He said, 'I had prepared a message to accompany 
the bill signed, stating my objection to it, and that I had yielded to what I 
assumed to be the public opinion of the country ; but presently the protests came 
in to me from the leading men of all the great Western cities aceomi)anicd Ity the 



20 ''THE HELL UF WAR AM) ITS PENALTIES^ 

New York and Boston nieetintrs. and I found that the true public opinion of the 
i-ountry would sustain nic in doing wliat Avas riolit and what I knew would be 
right. I read over the message which I had written to accompany the bill signed. 
J said to myself, this is all sophistry. 1 do not believe it myself, and no one else 
will believe it. I tore it up and suljstituted the veto message.' To which I 
replied, ' Veto and Vicksburg, — the victory of Peace and the vic^tory of War." 
You now have the opportunity, supported as you will be by the true public opin- 
ion of this country, to emulate the example of that grand man to maintain peace, 
order, and industry without violating the principles laid down in Washington's 
Farewell .address, and without violating the spirit of the Constitution. In that 
vou may rest assured of the continued supi)ort of all men to whom you would 
resort for cool, deliberate, and sound judgment throughout the country. 

" Yours with great respect, 

•• BOSTON, Xov. 14, 1898." " EdWAKI) ATKINSON. 

1 to " Tie Hell of War aM its Peilties." 



Since the earUer eiiitions of this piimphlet were printed I have received Parlia- 
mentary Reports — East India (Contagious Diseases) — No. 1 and No. :> (1897). 

No. 1. — Report of Departmental Committee, presented to Parliament. 
No. 3. — Report of a Committee of the Royal Colvege of Physicians. 

These documents prove that if this danger is not fully investigated and duly consid- 
ered in dealing with the disposal of Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippine Islands, both 
Executive and Congress may hereafter be held guilty of a criminal evasion of their duty. 
Boston, Dec. 15, 1S98. Edward Atkinson. 

REPORTS. 

No. 1. 
"The Eakl of Onslow, G.C.M.Ct., Chairman: 

"It must not be forgotten that these are all young men, not much more than 
lads, who upon entering the service were medically examined, and would have 
been rejected had they then shown any symptoms of constitutional taint. 

"During their short term of military service a great part (in some cases 
more than half) of their time has been spent in hospital, either in India or at 
home. Before reaching the age of twonty-live years these 50ung men have 
come home presenting a most shocking appearance : some \i\y there having obvi- 
ously but a short time to live; others were unrecognizable from disfigurement 
by reason t)f the destruction of their features, or had lost their palates, their eye- 
sight, or their sense of hearing ; others again were in a state of extreme emaci- 
ation, their joints distorted and diseased. Not a few are time-expired, but cannot 
be discharged in their j)resent condition, incapacitated as they are to earn their 
livelihood, and in a condition so repulsive that they could not mix Avith their 
lellow-men. Their friends and relatives refuse to receive them, and it is inex- 
pedient to discharge them only to seek the asylum of the poorhouse ; so they 
remain at Netley in increasing numbers, which, as matters now are, seem likely 
to continue to increase." 

" Influence on the healih of the 2yopulation at home. — Some of its victims are 
completely crippled, while the danger exists, in the case of each ot them who 
may afterwards marry, tliat \u' may transmit to his wife and children a loathsome 
anci horril)le complaint. This danger is not indeed confined to the Netley 
invalids, but extends to a far larger ami increasing number of men who annually 
come home with the seeds of constitutional disease in their systems. 

" More than 13,000 British soldiers annually leave India, most of whom are 
eventually absorbed amf)ng the civil population at home. How large a propor- 
tion of thes« bring home the seeds of communicable and inheritable disease 
may to some extent be estimated from the following figures : It was ascer- 
tained that of 70,(J42 British soldiers serving in India on the IfHh July, 1894, 
l'J,892, or 28 per cent., had been admitted to hospital for .syphilis since arrival in 
India. Only 20,247 men, or 37 ])er cent., had never sullercd, in or out of India, 
from any form of venereal disease. And all the evidence we have points to the 
existence of a .still worse state of things since thac date. Less than 4 per cent, 
of these men arc married. It is to be feared that a considerable number who 



riiE HELL OF ir.iA' AXJ) I'i's /> i:na L'/ihs." 21 



liavo contv:K't(!(l disease marry afterwards, and arc; liahlu lo transniiL il to llicir 
wives and eliildi-en. Nor is intercourse l.etween tlui sexes tlie only mc^ans l)y 
which syoiiilis can be eonnmmieated. Doc-tors eontniet it in the performance of 
their duties. It may be caught tiu-ougli drinking out of a cui), or smoking a 
pipe, whieii lias been touched by diseased lips; nurses can communicate it to 
infants, and infants to nurses. It is altogether a most easily communicable poison. 
The present condition of the army in India, with the enormous prevalence of 
venereal disease which lias been shown to exist, yearly sending home thousands 
of men infected with constitutional taint, is therefore a great and growing source 
of danger to the whole community. The inlhience which it is liable to exercise 
u|)on tJie health of the honu! i)()i)nlation is one of the gravest aspects of the 
whole (luestioii." 

" Further, a great amount of sickness antl ineiliciency not coming under the 
head of venereal ilisease {e.</., many cases of rheumatism, dysentery, heart- 
disease, etc.) is well known to be attributable to, or aggravated by, the specilic 
disease." 

"The hard fact remains that among a liody of men mostly very young, 
and nearly all obliged by the conditions of the service to remain unmarried, re- 
moved from home ties and restraints into a country where climate and environ- 
ments conduce to sexual indulgence, comparatively few are able to control the 
strongest passion in human nature, with the disastrous cotisequences, under 
present conditions, which the preceding ))aragraphs have described." 

No. ;i. 
From Report of Commiitee of Royal College of PhijsiciaiiA, Dr. WilkA. President. 

" Your committee beg leave to report as follows : 

" They have referred to a number of official and other reports and publica- 
tions bearing upon the subject of the prevalence of venereal disease in the British 
Army in India ; and some of their number proceeded to Netley, in order to inspect 
the numerous patients at present under treatment in the wards of the Royal Vic- 
toria Hospital, with the view of personally ascertaining the nature and type of 
the disease from which they are suttering." On the day they visited the hospital 
it contained 75'2 patients, of whom 21!) were syphilitic cases. The last troopship 
brought 312 invalids, among whom were 76 cases of syphilis. It is difficult to 
describe the painful impression made by the inspection of these sick soldiers. 
Almost every variety of constitutional syphilitic disease was represented, those 
of a virulent form being very numerous, and the results of the disease ^yere in 
many eases deplorable, while the appearance of the sutterers was most pitiable. 
The records of the hospital show that the number of such cases has largely and 
steadily increased in recent years, and that almost all have arrived from India." 

" The constitutional form of the disease is one of the most serious, insidious, 
and lasting of all the contagious diseases that affiict humanity. Other contagious 
complaints, e.g., small-pox or scarlatina (which in this and other civilized coun- 
ties are made the subject of legislative interference in the interest of the popula- 
tion at large), are transmissible only for a limited time and not by inheritance; 
yet the suflFerers are separated during the course of the disease, and for as much 
longer periods thereafter as experience has found to be necessary for safeg:uard- 
ing others from infection. With .syphilitic disease it is far otherwise: it is the 
most lasting in its ettects and most varied in the character of its specific nianifesta- 
tions ; it frequently gives rise to consequences far removed from its initial symp- 
toms, most seriously implicating and affecting various organs of the body ; it 
complicates other diseases; its ciontagious properties extend over lengthened 
periods of time, during which the sufferers are often a source of danger to in- 
nocent people, while they may be, and frequently are, as parents, the source 
whence specific infection is transmitted to their children." 

" About lo,000 soldiers return to England from India every year, and of 
these, in 1894, over 60 percent, had suffered from some form of venereal disease. 
These figures are quoted as showing more forcibly than words can the risk oi 
contamination, not only to the present population of this country, but also to its 
future generations. Of these men a number die, or, remaining invalids, are more 
or less incapacitated from earning their own livelihood, and thus become aburden 
on the rates."" 



22 THE HELL OF WAR AND ITS PENALTIES. 



AiBDia to "Tie Hell of Warai its Penalties." 

January, 1SJ){). 

Onl\' a part of the liorror.s of military control in tro])ieal climates have yet 
been exposed. The following otlieial report will be followed by others as soon 
as received. 

This report should be considered in view of the forced retention in the army 
of the volunteers for the Cuban war for service in the Philippine Islands ; atten- 
tion may be called to what that service means. 

In 1895 France took possession of Madagascar, a compact island off the 
African coast, 230,000 square miles in area, of which about one-third is mountain- 
ous and therefore reasonabl}' healthy. The northern end is in latitude 12° S ; the 
southern end 2.3'"^ S. The inhabitants are computed at 3,500,000. 

The following extracts from an oflicial report of Drs. Burot and Legrand, 
Naval Physicians of the Campaign in Madagascar, will surely indicate the 
probable results of our present campaign in the Philippine Islands, which are 
much nearer the equator, and where our forces must of necessity be confined to 
the most dangerous section of the malarious and pestilential coast stations until 
we have conquered the savage tribes of the interior who have never been subdued 
by Spain. 

[Translatiou.] 

(FPtENCII) CAMPAIGN OF MADAGASCAR. 

" The mortality in the body of ti'oops sent on this expedition exceeded all 
the pre-visions. In 10 months, from March to December, without any bloody 
encounter with the enemy, the army lost nearly as man}- men, all due i^roportions- 
being kept, as during the five years of the Mexican campaign, from 1862 to 1867. 
Yet in Mexico our soldiers had also had to fight against a terrible climate, 
against the dreaded fevers of hot countries, and besides, against an implacable 
and well-armed foe. 

" In Madagascar, out of an effective force of 12,850 men taken from naval 
and military troops, 4,189 deaths were reckoned, viz., about one-third, or, to speak 
more exactly, 325 out of every 1,000. 

" Amongst the military troops the general mortality was of 356 per 1,000, 
and amongst the naval troops of 237 per 1,000. 

" The body which was the most severely afllicted was that of the military 
engineers (sapeurs du genie), which worked to the construction of the roads and 
bridges; two-thirds of them died. Then comes, with a proportion of G.")2 per 
1,000, the 40th battalion of ' chasseurs a jricd,'' which was worn out by its 
forced march on Tsarasotra, and of which not one man reached Tananarive. 
Tlie squadron of the c(jnvoy troops (train dcs equipages) lost a little more than 
half of its effective force, the men being often obliged to tarry on the way and 
to do the work of coolies. The field artillery also suffered serious losses. 
Finally, the 200th infantry, without having fought, was broken up and could only 
send 163 men to Tananarive, to be represented. 

"When affirming in Parliament (a la Chambre) that one had to expect to 
have about 60 jjer 100 of the men sick, even if the most minute precautions 
were taken, Mr. Isaac met with marks of incredulity. Yet he was far from 
the reality. It was not a (juestion of sickness, but of death ; the general average 
of deaths for the military trooi)s reached nearly 40 per 100, whilst in some bodies 
of troops it was over 60 per 100. 



THE II ELI. OF WAR AND ITS l> IIN A I.TIES. 



" Out of 2,000 men, the colonial regiment composed of volunteers from La 
Reunion and of the 'malf/ache'' and 'haoussas'' battalions, there were 309 deaths, 
which gives an average of iiardly 15 per 100. This proves that native troops, 
strongly supported by Europeans, are the most enduring in colonial expeditions. 

" (,Sii,nu'(l) HuKOT & LEcatANU, 

" Naval I'hi/.ficians.'" 

The last statement will be remarked. These volunteers were acclimated. 
In any contest in the Philippines with the so-called insurgents our forces will l)e 
the unacclimated, less able to meet the bad conditions than even French troops; 
their adversaries will be men inured by resistance to Spanish forces, but now 
trying to establish their right to control their own afFiiirs against the policy 
named by President INIcKinley " Criminal Aggression." 

The Philippine Islands extend from latitude 4.40'^ N. to 20° N. They number 
1,200, but the total area is not well settled, probably about 00,000 square miles; 
inhabitants about 9,000,000. Luzon is the largest area, 40,000 square miles ; 
population very mixed ; about 100,000 Chinese and a much larger number of 
half-breed Chinese and Malays. 

If we are rightly informed there were 23,500 United States troops at 
Manila, but on an apparent danger that the native forces might take possession 
of Iloilo, and prove capable of establishing home rule, reenforcements were 
urgently called for, and three regiments have been hastily dispatched. 

The United States foi-ces sent to the Philippines are therefore now about 
double the number of regular French soldiers in the campaign in INIadagascar. 

By the rule of proportion, without making any allowance for the hotter and 
more pestilential conditions of the Philippine Islands, the death-rate in our 
forces in the Philippines in the first year will be one-third, or about 8,000 men, — 
probably a larger number will be sent home invalided. 

As these conditions must be known to the executive officers of the govern- 
ment, through the records of the Surgeon-General's office, the reason becomes 
plain why volunteers enlisted for the Cuban or Spanish war are now held on a 
technical agreement for two years' service to be sacrificed in the Philippine 
Islands. 

Lest others should be entrapped into enlistment in the regular army or the 
volunteer service in the tropics it will only be fair and honest on the part of the 
recruiting oftlcers to be put in possession of these facts. Many self-sacrificing 
men might enlist on the certainty of death or disability within the two years, 
but will of course be married before leaving for Manila in order to be assured of 
adequate pensions for their widows and children. 

The way to avoid all these penalties is plain. It is simply not to commit an 
act of "Criminal Aggression," a term so well chosen by President ^lelvinley. 

These islands can be neutralized ; their commerce can be extended ; tlie 
peace of God can be kept in all their ports. The people, already in part organ- 
ized, can be sustained in the maintenance of order, if necessary by foreign 
officers serving by agreement among nations. It is only the will that has been 
wanting, but when that will is expressed as it is now being the Executive and 
Congress alike will cease to drift as they are now drifting without any appar- 
ently definite plan or purpose, without any comprehensive estimate of cost, and 
without any method yet devised to fill the gaps in our forces, caused by death and 
disease, alreadv so apparent. 

EDWARD ATKINSON. 



24 THE HELL OF WAR ASD ITS PENALTIES. 



ADDENDA TO EIGHTH EDITION 

or 

"THE HELL OF WAR AXD ITS PEI^ALTIES." 

SICK RATE IX THE BRITISH AR:\IY IN INDL\. 
Medical Department Report for 18 96 {Parliamentary Blue Book). 
In computing the prohiible rate of sickness and disability among American 
troops in tropical countries, especially in the Philippine Islands, it must be kept 
in mind tliat the latter are close to the equator, latitude 4.40° to 20° N., while 
India I'xtends from 8° to ;55° N. India is as a rule (hy and possesses numerous 
iiealth stations or cantonments on tlie hills, while the climate of the Philippines 
is dani]) and malarious. Even in comjjaring the liot and malarious parts of India 
with th<; Philippines it must be kept in mind that English trooj^s are all regulars, 
ihat the numl)er at each station is relatively small, and that at each station all the 
precautions known to modern sanitary science are taken in order to keep the sick- 
rate low. In the Philippines none of these precautions have been taken, — no 
Avell prepared stations exist, sanitary science is unknown, and our troops must 
be mostly volunteers under the direction mainly of inexperienced and ill-prepared 
line officers. With these facts in mind the following figures may give warning: 
(xeneral average of India, number of warrant officers, non-com- 
missioned officers, and men in service, 181*0 . . . 70,484 

Admission to hospitals 97,738 

Admissions per 1,000 1,386.7_ 

Average sick time, each .soldier, days ..... 34.35 

Number constantly sick ........ 93.85 

The above averages cover the so-called health stations as well as the plains. 
For a ti-ue comparison with the Philippine Islands the condition of the ti'oops 
on the 2)lains must be taken, although the stations are as a rule dry and are much 
further north. Dealing with stations of above 150 men. 

Almiedabad, admissions to hospital per 1.000 men . . . 3,417 

Neemuch " " •' •• " . . . 2,455 

Newgong " " '» " " . . . 2,299 

Malarial fever about one-half ; venereal diseases one-third in each case. 
By districts the following figures are instructive : 
Allahabad, average number of men in district . . . 2,493 

Diseases, small-pox, enteric, yellow, and other fevers, cholera, 
and dysentery ......... 

^Malarial fever .......... 

Venereal diseases ......... 

All other diseases 

Total admissions to hospital ...... 

Nerbudda, average strength ....... 1,316 

Diseases, small-jxjx, etc. ....... 127 

malaria 904 

venereal 528 

all other 1,006 

Admissions to hospital 2,565 

Mhow, average strength 3,014 

Diseases, enteric fever, dysentcn-y, etc ..... 2^ 

malarial fever ........ 1,161 

venereal ......... 1,798 

all other 2^016 

Admissions to hospital ........ 5,197 

It will be remarked that at this station the admissions to Iiospital, from fevers 
and venereal diseases, number(;d :),1.S1 in a total force of 3,014 men. 

There are several more military districts further north, not as hot and much 
dryer tiian the Philippine Islands, where these same proportions of sickness con- 
stantly ])rcvail. 

The following paragraph from this report to the British Parliament will be 
read with interest: " Among the ten hill or convalescent stations it is founci that 
Pachmarhi gives the highest admission ratio, 2,265 \wv 1,000; Murree the lowest, 
1,0!M per 1,000. Of the principal hill stations garrisoned by healthy troops and 



THE HELL OF WAR AND ITS PENALTIES. 25 



having an average strength of over l.^O men Sabathu gave Uie liigliest admission 
ratio,1[,705 per l.OOU; Ihe lowest rate oceurred at (Jli(!rat, :>«(; per l.OUO." 

It may 1)0 safely assumed that tiie sick rate in the riiilippiiies will in soim- 
measure correspond' to the stations on the plains in India, adding whatever may 
be due to tlie humid climate, the lack of liospitals, etc., and the ignorance of line 
olliccrs. Tlie sick rate in the hill stations will corresjxjnd to what may In; ex- 
pected in Cuba and I'orto Ivico in the country districts, while the cities will for the 
present be worse tlian Bombay, Madras, Calcutta, etc., where about tiie average 
of India is found, 1,400 admissions to hospital in each 1,000 and a fraction less 
than ten per cent, constantly sick. Some of the regiments sull'cr more than 
others: appanmtly those mos't recently recruited. The ligurcs of tin; proi)ortion 

constantly in hospital are suggestive : 

.StieiiHtli. CoDBtu'itly Hick. 

1st Royal Fusiliers D.'Jl ll«.(;i 

•2nd Royal Irish 9oo 12(i.35 

1st Royal Welsh 877 140. 1!> 

-Dd Welsh 921 132.21 

Another fact will be observed; namely, the increasing tendency to venereal 
diseases of the most malignant type wliich devcloi)s rapidly when the hopeless 
conditions of military service in the ti'opics become apparent. 

Venereal Diseases, 1896. 
Admissions to Hospital per 1,000 men in service : 



In Scotland .... 112.7 

In Ireland .... 123.7 

In England .... 153.0 

In West Indies . . . 314.8 

In Ceylon .... 333.1 

In China .... 369.8 

In Straits Settlement . . 479.3 



In India as a whole in 1895 . 444.4 
In India as a whole in 1896 . 522.3 
In Mhow District in 1895 . 596.5 
In Belganm . ... 574-. 1 

In Rundelkhand . . 671.3 

In Rohilkhand . . 711.8 

In Jhansi .... 859.9 
In Newgong . . . 1013.6 

" There is a marked increase in the severity of the disease, the average 
duration of each case having risen from 27 days in 1895 to 35 days in 1H96." 

In the special report of the London College of Physicians, previously quoted, 
it is observed that this class of diseases is still increasing in number and malig- 
nity. See ditference between 1895 and 1896. 

In the conditions of the British Army in India in cantonments and liarracks 
supplied with good Avater and litted with all possible applicances we have the 
average rate of sickness requiring admission to hospitals under much better con- 
ditions than can be found in the Philippines and equal to any that can be estab- 
lished in Cuba, 

In the ten months' campaign of the French troops in Madagascar we have the 
death rate under better conditions than can be expected in the Philippine Islands. 
The young men of the United States who volunteered in a war undertaken in 
the name of humanity are now being compelled to serve in the '• tbrcible annexa- 
tion " which had not been thought of by William McKinley on the 11th of April. 
1898, and to take part in a campaign of conquest which he then said " that by our 
code of moralitv would be criminal aggression.'' 

It is now plain that this act will not receive the assent of the Senate at this 
session. 

Before the next Congress can be brought together it will become plain : 
First. — That the way to avoid the inmiolation of our troops is for Congress 
to forbid conquest and criminal aggression. 

Second. — That the way is plain to secure peace without accepting the cession 
of the Philippine Islands and without making their inhabitants citizens by bring- 
ing them under the jurisdiction of the United States. 

Third. —Th-At the wav to save the lives and health of the troops now 
exposed is bv ordering them hcjme, since after peace is declared there is no au- 
thority of law to keep them abroad and there can be no lawful function which 
they can perform in foreign tei-ritory in time of peace. 

Fourth. —'Yhn way has already become plain for the youth of the land to 
avoid disease and death in the tropics by refusing to volunteer or to enlist in the 
army or navy of the United States. 

fY//i. — The way will be found for the volunteers now held against their 
will to o-et their release from unlawful service in any other country than their own 
after p^ace is declared. EDWARD ATKINSOX. 

Brooklink, Jan. 13, 1899. 



26 now TO INCREASE EXPORTS. 



III. 



TREATISE SUBMITTED AT THE MEETING OF THE AMERICAN 
ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE AT 
THE MEETING HELD IN BOSTON ON AUGUST 25, 1898. 

By EDWARD ATKINSON. 

How TO Increase Exports. 

It is a common remark that the machinery which is now applied to prodm-- 
tion in the United States is so effective on nearly every line of work that a few 
months' time, varying in different estimates from six to nine, would suffice to 
meet the necessary consumption of the peojile of this country under normal con- 
ditions. Hence the necessity for foreign markets. I believe all these estimates 
are exaggerated. There is but one product, cotton, of which more than one-half 
is exported. There are miscellaneous products of agriculture, such as grain, 
provisions, and dairy products, — of which the export varies from ten (10) to 
twenty (20) per cent, of the farm value, changing according to conditions and 
according to the relative product of this and other countries. There are very 
few branches of what are called manufacturing industries of which we now 
export in excess of ten (10) per cent., and from that down to a fraction of the 
total product. 

Yet with here and there an exceptional jjeriod due to special conditions, such 
as the wide discredit and paralysis of industry which followed the silver craze of 
1893, it is not often that the means of production of manufactured goods have 
been largely in excess of the consumption. The real truth is that it is now 
possible to increase productive mechanism either on the field, in the forest, in the 
mine or the factory, with very great rapidity, thus very quickly meeting a renewed 
demand after a jieriod of dej^ression or any new export demand which may be 
opened. Supply is, therefore, pressing on demand, and the relief of exports is, 
therefore, a constant need. It is also true that with the exception of a very few 
branches of industry, such as the woollen and worsted manufacture, in which, 
however low the prices may be, the cost of domestic production is yet greatly 
enhanced in this as compared to competing countries by heavy taxes on wool and 
other materials ot foreign origin which are supplied to our competitors free of 
taxation, there is hardly a branch of production fitted to the climate of this 
country, either in agriculture, forestry, metallurgy, or manufacturing, in which 
we have not now such an advantage over other countries as to enable us to in- 
crease our exports in very large measure so far as the power of export rests on 
the cost of the production of any article which is in demand in foreign countries. 

Vast Inckeask in Expouts. 
The exports of the fiscal year ending June oO, 1897, before the foreign 
scarcity of grain had exerted any considerable influence, exceeded a thousand 
million dollars ($1,000,000,000) in value. The exports of the last fiscal year 
exceeded twelve Iiundred million dollars (81,200,000,000) in value ; the gainin the 
export of manufactured goods being relatively almost as great as the gain in 
the export of the products of agriculture even under the influence of the scarcity 
which prevailed in Europe. 1'hese goods consist of nearly every crude, partly 
manufactured. :mil linishcd jiroduct of the countrj-, witli the exceptions named; 



HOW TO INCREASE EXPORTS. 27 



namely, those of wiiicli the cost has been relatively enhanced by taxes on tlie 
import of the materials. These goods are sent to every corner of the globt;. 
Large quantities go to tlie manufacturing States of Europe with which w«f 
compete, notwitlistanding the fact that the wages which are recovered from the 
sale of these goods in tliis country are twenty-live (25) to one hundred (100) pcir 
cent, higher than they are in the manufacturing countries of l':un)i)e. Our goods 
are also sent in competition with the manufacturers of Europe to continents, 
luitions, and States, in which the rates of wages are not one-quarter, and in some 
cases not one-tenth, as much as the wages earned on wheat and on other similar 
products are in this country. If the rate of wages governed the cost of labor, not 
one dollar's worth of any of our products could be sent to any part of the globe 
in competition with the products of the labor of other countries. 

To What our Supremacy is Due. 

Our manifest supremacy is due to several causes: First, This is the only 
manufacturing country which produces within its own area an excess of food, of 
fuel, of timber, of every metal except tin, an excess of cotton, the most important 
fibre. We do not produce an excess of wool, but whenever common sense is 
applied to the production of avooI in the cotton States, alternately or concurrently 
with cotton on the same fields, we shall become large exporters of wool. It is 
not probable that we shall ever produce our own raw silk ; certainly not so long 
jis the reeling of the silk from the cocoon must be done by hand. 

Our second paramount advantage is this : Our national taxes do not exceed 
two and a half (2d) per cent, upon our annual product, of which they constitute a 
share set apart for the support of government. Even with the increase of taxa- 
tion which may follow the present war, our national taxes cannot exceed four 
(4) per cent, of our product. I compute the national taxes of Great Britain, which 
are double ours per head, and which are derived from a lesser product, at six (6) 
to seven (7), possibly eight (8), per cent. ; Germany at ten (10) per cent. ; France 
at fifteen (15) to eighteen (18) per cent. ; while in poor Italy it is alleged that the 
national expenditures absorb a third of the entire product. Such are the relative 
disadvantages of militarism. 

From the best information and study of the systems of taxation of all coun- 
tries I am of opinion that the advantage of this country in the ratio which taxa- 
tion for national purposes bears to the total annual product is not less than -4 per 
cent, in our favor, as compared to Great Britain, and from 8 to 15 per cent, as 
compared to the manufacturing States of continental Europe. Our average 
advantage is not less than 6 per cent, upon our total product. Now, as 6 per 
cent, is a large margin to be carried to profit and loss account in this country, 
where other countries would have no margin, we may deem our advantages in 
this matter apparently established unless we ourselves have the folly to enter 
upon a period of imperialism and militarism, with the consequent result of a very 
large increase in the burden of taxation. 

Our third advantage is in the stimulus of climate applied throughout the 
more northern or distinctly manufacturing sections of the country to the most 
versatile, energetic, and well-trained body of workmen taken as a whole that can 
be found in the world. Under these conditions high wages have become a syno- 
nym for low cost of production, and we are now seeking how to extend the 
benefits of our commerce throughout the world. 

PuiJLic Mind Gravely Moved. 
The public mind is being gravely moved on this question. Each section, each 
State, and the representatives of every l)ranch of industry are turning their atten- 
tion to the widenin;.:- of their market. Admitting that the home market is and will 



28 HOW TO INCREASE EXPORTS. 

always be the largest and the most important, yet the representatives, especially 
of agriculture, have fouiul out that the price of their entire product is fixed by 
what the surplus will bring i'nr export. 'I'he export demand is the balance-wheel 
of the wliole tralHe of tliis country. The prosperity, indeed the very existence, 
of our ])resent system of agriculture depends upon the development of exports, 
and since half the population is occupied either directly in agriculture or in the 
secondary i)rocesses of converting the ci-ude products of tlie farm into their sec- 
ondary forms for sale, the i)rosi)erity of manufacturers depends upon that of 
the farmers, who arc their principal customers. May there not be a great deal 
of misdirected energy unless the principles which govern the trade and commerce 
are fully considered ? 

The paramount power of supplying nearly all the necessaries of life, which 
tlie workl nuist have at the liighest rates of wages and the lowest cost of produc- 
tion, has fallen to the United States. The demand for these goods exists through- 
out the world, but the purchasing power which must exist in order to supply that 
demand is very limited. The reasons for this limitation must be considered, lest 
time be wasted in eflforts to open trade with nations that have the least power of 
purchase, while we neglect States and nations whicli possess the greatest power. 

Thk Destination of Ouk Exports. 
What makes the power of purchase of foreign countries? Before dealing 
with that question, the following facts and tables should be fully considered : 

Tablk No. 1,' 
Valuatiou and De.'ttinaiion of tlie Exports from the United States. 



United Kiujjdom of Great Britain and Ire- 
land 

British colonies and dependencies (wliite 

population 10,000,000, mixed 300,000,- 

000) 

France, Germany, Holland, and Belgium, 
Russia, Austria, and other European States, 

China, Japan, and other countries in Asia 

not under British rule 

.\frica not under Britisli control .... 
Hawaii, Polynesia, and islands not British 

or .Spanish 

.Small unenumerated places 

.Soutl) America, omitting British Guiana, 

Spanish and French West Indies, Ilaj-ti, 
and San Domingo 

Mexico 

Central America, omitting British Hon- 
duras 

United States 

#7,943,346,955 $794,334,695 100 1,450,000,000 

From the above table covering the export of ten (lU) years, ending June 30, 
18'J4, it will appear that the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and 
lier colonies bought from us in round figures sixty (60) per cent, of what we 
liad to sell ; France, Germany, Belgium, and the Nethcrlaiuls twenty-three (23) 
per cent. ; the rest of the world seventeen (17) per cent. 



Exports, 188.5 
to 1894. 


Annual Per cent, 
average. of total. 


Approximate 
population. 


$4,060,135,619 


$406,013,562 


51.12 


40,000,000 


712,054,131 


71,205,413 

$477,218,975 
180,953,396 


8.97 

60.09 
22.78 


310,000,000 


$4,772,189,750 
1,809,533,962 


350,000,000 
104,000,000 


$6,581,723,712 
482,379,273 


$658,172,371 
48,237,927 


82.87 
6.07 

88.94 


230,000,000 


$7,064,102,985 


$706,410,298 




116,481,826 
6,847,818 


11,648,182 
684,782 


1.47 
.09 




44,318,757 
13,953,245 


4,434,876 
1,395,324 


.56 
.17 

91.23 
3.70 


642,000,000 


$7,245,733,631 
295,285,939 


$724,57K,462 
29,528,584 


36,000,000 


244,755,771 
113,517,519 


24,475,577 
11,351,752 


3.08 
1.43 


2,500,000 
12,000,000 


44,053,095 


4,405,309 


.56 


3,500,0(JO 
70,000,000 



Authority. Report of 1898, Bureau of StatieticB, United StatCB Tre.-isury. 



HOW TO INCREASE EXPORTS. '2\) 



111 tli(! fi^i-al years omliiij; June 30, 1895, 189G, and 1897, a slight change 
occurrt'd, due to the iiiereasiiio: proportion of nianufaetures exjiorted to other 
than Uritisli countries. 

In llie liscal year entlinj;- dune 80. IS'JM, altliougli bad crops created an exces- 
sive demand for the products of agriculture among European States, yet the 
increasing exports of manufactured products to all parts of the woild cliaiigcd 
the relative proportions of foreign i)urchases in a considerabh; measure. 

Taum; No. -. 

Exports of ihe United States fnr Twelve Months ( nditni June 30, JS98. 

Per cent. 

United Kingdom of Great I5ritaiii and Irelan.l . . $540,860,152 43.!)2 

British cohinies and dependencies : 

Gil)raltar $304,829 

Malta 64,352 

Bennu.la 998,941 

British Honduras .... o5o,179 

British North America . . . 84,911,260 

British West Indies . . 8,382,740 

British (h.iana .... 1,792,912 

Australia 15,603,763 



British Africa .... 12,027,142 

British Asia 10,961,055 



135,602,173 11.01 



Germany $155,039,972 

France 95,452,692 

Netherlands 64,274,622 

Belffium 47,606,311 



576,462,325 54.93 



$362,373,597 29.43 



Austria-Hunffarv, Italy, Spain, and all otiier European 

States . " 69,718,419 5.66 



$1,108,-554,341 90.02 
South and Central America, Mexico, and West Indies 

not British, including Cuba and Forto Rico . - 77,194,168 6.27 

Asia not British 33,863,213 2.75 

Oceanica not British, including Philippine Islands . 6,387,618 .52 

Africa not British . . . . . . . . 5,330,610 .44 

$1,231,329,950 100.00 

By this table it is made plain that in the last fiscal year the United Kingdom 
of Great Britain and Ireland took from us a fraction under forty-four (44) per 
cent.; the British colonies and dependencies eleven (11) per cent.; France, 
Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands twenty-nine and forty-three one Imn- 
dredths (29.43) per cent. ; Austria-Hungary, Italy, and the rest of Europe five 
and sixty-six one-hundredths (5.66), while Mexico, South and Central America, 
Asia, Africa, and Oceanica other than British were able to buy from us only a 
fraction under ten (10) per cent, of what we had to sell. 

How Wk are paid pou Exports. 

But there is another as])ect of this case which is of the most profound impor- 
tance. How did Europe pay for our exports ? In the fiscal year ending June 3o, 
1898, the import of goods was as follows, even a part of these imports consisting 
of Australian \vool, ICgyptian cotton, Russian hemp, and some otlier articles 
bought in London, wliich is the centre of trade : 



30 tJOW TO INCREASE EXPORTS. 

Imports. 

Great Britain $109,138,365 

Germanv 69,690,907 

Fninci' " 52,730,003 

Belo:iiim 8,741,826 

NetherlamLs 12,535,110 

$252,842,211 
Rest of Europe 53,249,603 

$306,091,814 
It will be remarked that in round figures we sold food, fibres, and fabrics to 
European States to the amount of over nine hundred and seventy million dollars 
($970,000,000). We bought from Europe goods, inclvuling Australian wool and 
Eg\-ptian cotton, to the amount of three hundred and six million dollars ($30t),- 
000,000). The difference of over six hundred and fifty million dollars ($650,- 
000,000) Avas i^assed to our credit in gold by weight at the measure of the pound 
sterling, which is the standard or unit of value in the conduct of foreign com- 
mei'ce. 

Silver Enthusiasts are Illogical. 
This huge sum was subject to our drafts, which we made for such gold coin 
as we needed to sustain our credit, also for the purchase of our own securities re- 
turned to this country, by so much liquidating our foreign debt, now very small ; 
lastly, for the purchase of our tea, coffee, sugar, and other products chiefly bought 
in States or continents where silver money or paper money is used for local pur- 
poses, securing at the gold standard double the quantity that could have been 
bought at the market price of silver. Yet, grotesquely strange as it may seem, 
there are still a few illogical persons in this country who sincerely believe that it 
would be for the benefit of our farmers and manufacturers to make silver dollars 
a full legal tender at the rate of sixteen of silver to one of gold, or at the ratio 
of a dollar twenty-nine and a half cents (.$1.29^) per ounce of silver, and thereby 
to enable our European debtors to pay us on our contracts for wheat and corn and 
cotton at that rate with coin made in our own mint for silver which costs the 
British silver miners less than twenty-five {25) cents an ounce, and on which they 
are still making very large jirofits and increasing their product on a market price 
of about fifty cents. 

Is it not manifest that the trade with Europe cannot be long upon these terras 
unless we become large lenders of capital to European counti'ies ? We cannot 
year after year sell our i)r()ducts for double or more of the value of what we buy 
from Europe, drawing gold in payments. In one or two years we should drain 
every bank in Europe, and we should have no use for the gold of which we now 
liave enough. We are adding year by year to our stock of gold the product of 
our own mines, more than amjjle to meet any possible need of an additional 
reserve. For this reason, if for no other, in order to keep our largest market we 
must open up our ports free from any obstruction except Avhat is made necessary' 
in imposing duties for revenue only, or (>Ls(; the whole of tlie present undertaking 
to increase our export trade will utterly fail. The non-mai;hine-using nations of 
the world have not the purchasing power to relicA^e us of our excess, and will not 
have it for decades and perhaps generations. 

Olr Great Consuming Powkk. 

Ill making an efl'ort to increase our exports we must give; regard to the factors 

which make the consuming and therefoi'e the purchasing power of nations greater 

or less. The consuming power of the people of the United States is greater than 

that of any other State or nation, for the reason that its power of production in 



HOW TO INCREASE EXPORTS. 31 

ratio to numbers is in excess of all others. We number about five (5) per cent, 
of the population of the globe. Yet we consume more than a third part of the 
commercial product of iron and steel, and are rapidly increasing our proportion 
while at the same time making heavy exports. We consume more than twenty- 
five (25) piT cent, of the conunereial j)ro(Uiet of cotton, producing aboutsixty(()0) 
percent., subject to variation. \\i- consume nearly twenty-five (2.")) percent, of the 
commercial ])roduct of wool, being for the present slightly deficient in production. 

We consume nearly twenty-five (25) per cent, of the commercial product of 
sugar, nearly half the commercial product of coffee. What proportion of the 
meats and other animal food we consume as compared to other nations it is 
impossible to say, but it is enormously in excess. In respect to food products in 
general, we produce vastly more than we can consume, and our potential in 
production cannot yet be measured. We have the greatest capacity in the pro- 
duction of coal at low cost as yet developed in any part of the world, especially 
of the coals suitable for conversion into coke, and thereby for the manufacture 
of steel. But in this matter inventions which give an almost certain promise of 
success in the conversion of coal into power without wasting energy upon light 
or heat may ere long change all the conditions of the world in the development 
of power. 

In dealing with the purchasing power of other States we may be governed 
by the same rule. In the States in which the potential energy has been most 
fully developed we find the most abundant consumption of food of high nutri- 
tion, thereby giving the staying power of men who are occupied in the direction 
of machinery and modern tools. As we pass from one State to another we find 
its consuming and therefore its j^urchasing power diminishing with the lessened 
quantity and lower quality of the food consumed, and the lessened staying power 
in the application of labor to the direction of mechanism. Relative nutrition and 
innutrition are prime factors in the ajiplication of labor to all arts. 

Who our Best Consumers are. 

Following these lines, where do we find in fact our best consumers in ratio 
to numbers ? First — In British North America, where appi'oximately five million 
(5,000,000) well-endowed, well-fed, and well-bred men and women mainly of the 
same origin with ourselves bought from us goods and wares of every kind in the 
last fiscal year at the rate of nearly seventeen dollars ($17) per head of the whole 
po2)ulation, being relatively to numbers our largest customers. 

Next — The English speaking people of the United Kingdom of Great Britain 
and Ireland, approximately forty million (40,000,000) in number, bouglit from 
us at the rate of thirteen dollars and a half ($13.50) per head, by far our largest 
customers on the aggregate — second in amount per capita. 

Next — The people of British Guiana, of the British West Indies, and of the 
Bermudas, under the just and equitable rule of the English common law, were 
enabled to buy from us in excess of six dollars ($G) per head. The people of 
Australia, about five million (5,000,000) in number, far away, with industry as 
yet but slightly developed, whose product of wool we fine heavily, thereby reduc- 
ing their power of purchasing our products, yet bought from us in excess of 
three dollars ($3) per head. We may not measure the purchases of British 
Africa and British Asia because the goods thereto sent are distributed among 
those who rely upon the English protection for their increasing prosperity, the 
greater part of our exports being to British Asia and Africa. 

English Speakers the Best Buyers. 
Suffice it, that either the English speaking people themselves or those of 
other races who have come under the protection and just administration of the 



32 HOW TO INCREASE EXPORTS. 



English law have developed the greatest purchasing power in respect to the 
excess ot" our own products. It would therefore be consistent with the ordinary 
rules which govern the conduct of business that we should look to the peoi^le of 
Great Britain and her colonies for the greatest development of our exports, and 
in oriler to promote wider and increasing markets we might rightly remove the 
legislative obstructions with which we have attempted to restrict the import of 
the goods with which they might pay us for larger and larger quantities of our 
own ))roducts. 

Tiiere are about five million (6,000,000) in the Dominion of Canada, and 
there are somewhat in excess of live million (5,000,000) peoj^le in the State of 
New York. The jjeople of the State of New York exchange the products of that 
State with the people of other States on the east, west, and south. No one can 
measure in terms of money the volume of trade for mutual benefit which unites 
the people of this country for mutual interest. One may be very certain that the 
volume of the exports from the State of New York to New England, to other 
Middle States and to the Western States, vastly exceeds the share of the exports 
of the State of New York to the people of the Dominion of Canada. It may be 
possible that all Canada consumes two ($2) or three dollars ($3) per head of the 
products of the State of New York. How much does all New England consume, 
and all the other Middle States? Yet if there were no grotesque obstructions to 
the mutual service which the people of New York and Canada might render to 
each other, the trade with these two sections might be equal to the trade with 
the neighboring States with which I have compared it. 

Large Market in a Small Section. 

Reverting to the purchasing power of other States, the people of France, Ger- 
many, Holland and Belgium now number about one hundred and live million 
(105,000,000). They bought from us under the pressure of a great scarcity of 
grain in the last fiscal year at the rate of three dollars and a half ($3.50) per head. 
It will be observed that so far we have dealt with the purchasing power of the 
States which have applied modern science and invention to a greater extent than 
the people of any other countries except our own. All that have been named, 
except Great Britain, are customarily deficient in the kinds of food which appear 
to be necessary for the development of the greatest physical energy, mainly 
animal food ; and in proportion to tiieir deliciency-, or we might say to their innu- 
trition, is the purchasing poAver of nations reduced. Yet in this relatively small 
section of the world with which I have dealt, we found our market for ninety 
(90) per cent, of our total export. 

Want oi' Good (iovEUNMENT. 

Another prime fa(;tor in the development of purchasing power or in its dimi- 
nution is the existence or want of good government, of sound money and freedom 
from militarism. Militarism is the curse of modern Eiu'ope; bad money the 
greatest evil next to bad government among the Spanish-American countries; 
while the necessity of arduous conditions of hand work still existing throughout 
the greater part of Asia and Africa greatly limits the ))urehasing i)ower of the 
ixreater part of the population of the globe. 

The five million (5,000,000) people of British North America bouglil of us 
last year eighty-five million dollars' ($85,000,000) worth of goods ; the thirteen 
million (13,000,000) people of Mexico bought only twenty-one million dollars' 
($21,000,000) worth. The English speaking people of the Dominion nearly 
seventeen dollars ($17) a head ; the Spanish-Americans of Mexico, the most pi-o- 
gressive State which has been under the evil infiuences of the Spanish rule, less 
than two dollars ($2) per iicad. 



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